Cherie Aschenbrenner, the police department's senior liaison, said she asked Swoboda to speak at the event about downtown crime — or the perception of downtown crime — because of concerns she had heard from seniors.

"There is a stigma of downtown," Aschenbrenner said. Her own mother-in-law, age 76, has the same perception — that it is an unsafe place, Aschenbrenner said.

She also asked a spokesman from the Downtown Neighborhood Association to speak, to let seniors know what is available in retail and restaurants in the area.

"They don't know what there is down here to walk to," Aschenbrenner said.

"Some seniors just do not feel safe coming into the downtown area," Swoboda said. But that perception comes from crime experienced in Elgin in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he said.

Swoboda started with giving residents an update on Elgin's crime statistics. The 2016 uniform crime report, as sent to the FBI, shows that Elgin's crime stats are at a 40-plus year low, even as the city's population has doubled.

Janelle Walker / The Courier-News

Elgin Chief of Police Jeff Swoboda touted the safety of downtown Elgin during a talk with area senior citizens Thursday at the Centre of Elgin. The crime statistics for downtown Elgin are lower during the daytime hours than many other places in the city, Swoboda told residents.

Elgin Chief of Police Jeff Swoboda touted the safety of downtown Elgin during a talk with area senior citizens Thursday at the Centre of Elgin. The crime statistics for downtown Elgin are lower during the daytime hours than many other places in the city, Swoboda told residents. (Janelle Walker / The Courier-News)

He also pulled data for downtown Elgin from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — when seniors are more likely to have breakfast, coffee, lunch, shop or dine downtown, he said.

That data shows five or less occurrences of most types violent crime in 2015 and 2016.

There is a jump in thefts — 40 in 2016 and 56 in 2015. Those, however, are in large part accounted for in thefts between members of Elgin's homeless population and reported in the downtown area, he said.

Overall, Elgin's statistics have dropped, Swoboda said, because of the community policing done by officers with the help of Elgin residents.

"The police are the public and the public are police," Swoboda said, referring to one of the tenets of community policing. While police officers do the heavy lifting of investigating and arresting those who commit crimes, it takes the community calling in problems and talking with officers to solve those problems, he said.

One crime that has seen an increase is burglaries to vehicles. Those can be prevented in large part by locking cars, keeping valuables out of sight when they are in the car, and keeping garage doors closed, he said.

Burglaries to vehicles could be reduced by half or more if people locked their car doors, he said.

"From time to time they are breaking windows to get into a car but that rarely happens — only if they see something that they want — the purse, the phone, the packages in the back seat at Christmas," Swoboda said.

"It is a two-step process — take things out of plain view, put things in the trunk, and lock your car door," Swoboda said.

Don Pielin, one of the directors of the Downtown Neighborhood Association and a downtown property owner, talked about the restaurants and coffee shops downtown — many of which are very walkable, he said.

"You can walk it … slowly, but you can walk it. You can't walk Randall Road," Pielin said.

DNA employees passed out flyers that included many of the shops and restaurants open in downtown.

Not all seniors think Elgin's downtown is unsafe, said Jean Goodwin, 85, of Elgin.

"We go to the eighth floor" of the Professional Building on Division Street for Elgin Art Showcase events, and to the Hemmens Cultural Arts Center for the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Goodwin said. She's also eaten at Elgin Public House on East Chicago Street and Dog's Paw Brewing on South Grove, "but not a lot," she said.

"It is not our type of place but we tried it out. Their clientele is younger," Goodwin said.

She does have other friends that are concerned about downtown, but she's not one of them, Goodwin said.

Denise Higham, 62, said she's lived in Elgin for 19 years but is still discovering downtown. She would go to city hall but saw the downtown as a municipal center — not as a place to recreate, she said.